SRepresentatives of the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Swiss Import Promotion Program in the EU and Switzerland (SIPPO) and USAID/Sida FARMA Project in BiH held today in Sarajevo a workshop on ''Market trends and market demand for fresh fruits and vegetables in BiH''.

Director of the Institute for Education with the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber Duljko Hasić said that the Institute through various workshops and educational activities helps businesses to fulfill the conditions for the EU market, which is exceptionally demanding.

He also said that exports of fresh fruits and vegetables are an important area, now with greater investment and potential than ever before.

The aim of the workshop is, he says, to prepare and educate producers who intend to export or have exported to the EU market.

Through workshops they will be informed about the trends of the market of fresh fruits and vegetables in the EU.

He recalled that BH businesses in 2013 exported to the EU market fresh fruits and vegetables valued at approximately 100 million KM, but that produce worth 245 million KM was imported.

“We are working to perform additional preparation of assistance to this production that could place as many products the EU market demands,” said Hasić.

In connection with the export of milk to the EU market, Hasić reminded that at the moment BiHis a host to the inspection from the EU Food and Veterinary Office based in Dublin.

After the performed control it was found that BH milk producers meet almost all the requirements for the export of milk by European standards, but the problem is the mismatch with inspections at different levels in BiH.

Hasić clarifies that the EU requires veterinary roof inspection, a single body to oversee health and food control, but BH has three levels, cantonal, entity and state, which is a crucial brake for placement of the BiH dairy products on the EU market.

“As long as the authorities in BiH do not fulfill this requirement, we will not receive a green light,” underlined Hasić.

After the workshop in Sarajevo, workshops will be held in Tuzla, Mostar and Bijeljina.

Also, they announced the visit of BiH producers of fresh fruits and vegetables to the Fruit Logistics Fair in Berlin which is the largest fair of this type in Europe and worldwide.